On the 11th of June, Governor Jackson, at his own instance, accompanied by General Price, had an interview with General Lyon and Colonel Blair at St. Louis, when he requested that the United States troops should be withdrawn from the soil of Missouri. General Lyon, as well as Colonel Blair, were equally blind to the advantages of this movement, and could not be made to see how the Government or the State of Missouri could be benefitted by a surrender of the field to the secessionists. Jackson and Price, finding their negotiations altogether vain, and under a previous arrangement that they were not to be arrested or interfered with before the 12th, returned to Jefferson City on the same night, and prepared for an immediate hostile demonstration. General Lyon, convinced that the only effective treatment demanded by the occasion consisted in an instant arrest of the conspirators, if possible, started up the river, and occupied Jefferson City on the 15th, the place having been abandoned by the rebels. On the 16th, he started in pursuit of Price and Jackson, and on the 17th landed about four miles below Booneville, where their forces were collected, and had resolved to make a stand. BATTLE OF BOONEVILLE. JUNE 17, 1861. The enemy were exceedingly well posted, having had every advantage in the selection of their position. They occupied the summit of the ground, which rises upward from the river in a long slope, and were prepared to give the loyal troops a warm reception. General Lyon opened a heavy cannonade against the rebels, who retreated and dispersed into the adjacent wood, where, hidden by bushes and trees, they opened a brisk fire on his troops. Arriving at the brow of the ascent, Captain Totten renewed the engagement by throwing a few nine-pounder explosives into their ranks, while the infantry filed oblique right and left and commenced a terrible volley of musketry, which was, for a short time, well replied to. The enemy were posted in a lane running towards the river from the road along which the army of the United States were advancing, and in a brick house on the north-east corner of the junction of the two roads. A couple of bombs were thrown through the east wall of that house, scattering the rebels in all directions. The well-directed fire of the German infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel Schaeffer, on the right, and General Lyon’s company of regulars and part of Colonel Blair’s regiment on the left of the road, soon compelled the enemy to seek a safer position. They clambered over the fence into a field of wheat, and again formed in line just on the brow of the hill. They then advanced some twenty steps to meet the Federal troops, and for a short time the artillery was worked with great rapidity and effect. Just at this time the enemy opened fire from a grove on the left of Lyon’s centre, and from a shed beyond and still further to the left.